Dicing with Death Episode 035
Map by Thomas George Newman ]] House]] Recap Day 113 Solstace. Qualneer goes to the Old Quarter to meet with Granite's Cousin, Daggart. He finds the shop "Daggart's Appeasing". Qualneer goes inside and meets Daggart. Qualneer leaves an uncut Ruby with Daggart to test his skill. He says the Ruby will be cut by tomorrow. Qualneer and Michelle head across town to the building site of their new home. Ker'Ker'garts Ferth'in'blin is outside the big block of stone that is being turned into the house. He says he accidentally let lots of rats into the house from the sewer. Ker'Ker'garts opens a hole in the wall and 3 giant rats 2 foot long flee the house. Qualneer kills 1 and Michelle kills one, and the 3rd escapes down the street. Qualneer chases after the rat and kills it near the fountain square. Qualneer throws the rat off the cliff into the ocean. 2 more rats escape before Ker'Ker'garts closes the stone wall. Qualneer and Michelle head back to the New Quarter and looks for Rat Poison. Using Thieves Cant and Michelle's "Friends" spell, Qualneer finds a kid who is selling poison, but he is reckless and lets Qualneer look at the vial in his hands. Qualneer walks away with the poison. The kid goes to attack Qualneer and shivs him. Qualneer offers to make the kid his apprentice, tells the kids who he is, then just walks away. Qualneer goes to the Butcher's shop and buys 36 pounds of cheap meat. Qualneer and Michelle returns to the house, poisons the meat, then heads inside in a opening that Ker'Ker'garts opens up for him. Qualneer heads downstairs, holding a lit torch, down to the basement and sees that the way is connected to the sewers. Qualneer starts to head back to his basement, but then is attacked by a tentacle coming out of a grate. Another tentacle comes out and takes the sack of meat Qualneer is carrying./ In Qualneer's head he hears the telepathic message "Meat!". The other tentacle drags the poisoned meat down the drain. Qualneer fights the tentacle around his legs. In Qualneer's head he hears the telepathic message "Flesh!". Qualneer tries to break free but can't. In Qualneer's head he gets a telepathic message of gratitude, and is release. He hears a create somewhere start to disgustingly eat the meat. Qualneer flees back into his basement. Qualneer leaves the house, and says tomorrow they need to build a door to the basement. Ker'Ker'garts closes the hole in the wall, and the party head over to "The Traveler's Oasis", where Qualneer gets a stiff drink. Day 114 The party head back to the house. Ker'Ker'garts says he can build a stone door in the basement to block off the sewer. Qualneer and Michelle keep watch for two hours as Ker'Ker'garts installs the stone sliding door. Ker'Ker'garts says that should keep the giant rats out, and he'll be able to continue construction. Qualneer heads out alone back to "Daggart's Appeasing" to inspect the cut ruby and sees it is cut well. Qualneer says he has some ruby ore coming in later that he'll ask Daggart to work on. ]] Day 131 Qualneer rests for 15 days to heal up. He has Imbop cook in the "The Traveler's Oasis" Kitchen during this time. Michelle researches into the sewer in the library. Michelle's research finds out that the city was built on top of the already existing sewers of an ancient construction, so she can't determine when they were built. The people who helped shape the city when it was built are no longer alive, except one who left the order a long time ago, Iskiqur, the Last Shaper, and he now lives in the Elf Wood of Faeneer to the south. Qualneer collects rumors of what is down in the sewers and finds many stories about monsters in the sewers. Day 132 Qualneer and Michelle heads out from Solstace out the East gate then head south down the road towards Faeneer. At the base of the switch backs before the mountains there is an inn. Qualneer and Michelle rest at the inn. Qualneer asks around in the inn if anyone is heading to Faeneer, but no one is. One man, Mark, is heading south to Wodheim to deliver food goods with his 2 companions. Qualneer and Michelle arrange to travel with Mark over the mountains. Day 133 The party head up with the Mark's Ox-driven Wagon up the switch backs and pass where Qualneer and Michelle know is a secret entrance to the Underdark. Qualneer sees the land on the south side of the mountain is more lush and more green. Qualneer than remembers that he convinced Bates to come to Solstace and he could have used his wagon, and is filled with regret. They cross a wind bridge over the river in the low lands. In late afteroon they see a round palisade wall around the town of Wodheim. They are allowed in the north west gate easily and enter the town. Qualneer and Michelle leave the wagon and head into the centre of town and see the great tree, it's roots are shaped into a gazeebo that looks like it has sustained some fire damage. Qualneer displays outward contempt with the way the tree has been treated. They head to a travellers inn near the North-West town gates. Inside Qualneer and Michelle meet 3 Elven Merchant Brothers on their way back to Faeneer as well. They have heard of Iskiqur, the Last Shaper as well, and confirm he is in Faeneer. Qualneer drops thieves cant into his conversation in Elven, disturbing one of the elven brothers. Day 134 The group head out Wodheim's South-East gate with a Wagon and immediately head off road and head west towards the Elfwood. An hour later they spot some Goblins in the trees around them. The other elves says the little Goblins will keep their distance. They reach the river and then travel along it south-west. At Nightfall they have passed the border into Elf Territory. The group make camp. The woods are peacefully quiet, but there is the sensation of always being watched that Qualneer remembers. During the night Qualneer hears music in the distance. Qualneer wakes Michelle and they go off to find the source of music to the South-East. After a minute Qualneer asks Michelle to wait at camp, and come save him if he isn't back in 20 minutes. Qualneer goes towards the sound of fiddles. Qualneer arrives at the top of a hill and sees a glen beyond, and there are a dozen "Moths" flying around. On the ground is a circle of Red Mushrooms with White Spots. Qualneer gathers the will power to leave the Fairy Circle alone and return to camp. Qualneer explains what he saw to Michelle. For the next few hours the sound of fiddles continues. Day 135 The group travel to the South West for a few hours before being approached by a sentry. After everyone explains why they are here, they are allowed to pass. An hour later they arrive in Faeneer, the city of the elves. There is no wall, just suddenly you are surrounded by buildings in the trees. Qualneer has no intention of visiting his family, and is only here for buisness. Qualneer leaves the Elven Merchants and takes Michelle to the Wizard Spire. He asks about finding Iskiqur. He is told his adolencent sister Alwel had joined as a wizard student, but six months ago she went missing. Qualneer goes to talk to the teacher mage, and asks about Iskiqur, and the mage has never heard of that name. When Qualneer mentions they are a Stoneshaper, the head Mage says the stoneshapers would be with the clerics at the counthouse. Michelle asks permission to observe the Elven Mage as he does his work, but he gives Michelle permission to observe the magic of his apprentices for the day. She sees the apprentices inefficiently use their magic to tend to some plants. Qualneer goes off alone to the courthouse. It is a large marble building held up by wooden pillars. From there Qualneer is given direction to Iskiqur's Cabin. Iskiqur, the elderly male elf, invites Qualneer inside and serves him tea. Qualneer asks about what lies beneath Solstace. Qualneer explains he knows about the Lensement being controlled by the diviners, then describes his encounter in the sewers with the tentacle monster. Iskiqur identifies the creature as an Otyugh. Iskiqur tells of the history of Solstace. It is a city built on top of a city built on top of a city and so on thoughout the ages. He beleives it was first built as an underdark city, with only the top story above the surface. Iskiqur was once the High Priest of Solstace. Qualneer asks about getting to the old lower city, but Iskiqur says the ways to it are sealed off, and the only way to get inside is guarded by the All-Seer. Qualneer name-drops Ker'Ker'garts, and Iskiqur recognises the name, and mentions, among other things, that Ker'Ker'garts is mad for rubies. Qualneer wonders to himself if Ker'Ker'garts will accept payment in Rubies instead of gold. Qualneer returns to his family home after being away for so long. He sees his Mother and brother Oneal. They talk about after Qualneer left to seek his fortune, his sister Alwel started displaying magical talent, so she was sent to the mages to learn. The last person to see Awel was her friend Galadan, another student at the tower. Qualneer returns to the Mage Tower. He finds Galadan with Michelle in the garden using his magic to prune roses. Qualneer demands to know what happened to Arwel agressively to Galadan. Galadan says after they took their lessons for the day, Alwel headed left the tower to head home, no one saw her since then. Galadan thinks she ran away from home. Qualneer has Galadan to take him to the head wizard, Rodineer who appears to be quite young and handsome. Qualneer dismisses Galadan, who is forced by Rodineer to use a slow fall spell and jump out the balcony of the tower down to the ground. Qualneer asks why Galadan hadn't used magic to find his sister, and he says he respects her privacy. Qualneer tries to bribe Galadan to magically search for her, but Galadan says he isn't for hire. Qualneer almost gets violent, but calms himself down. Qualneer apologises Rodineer, and asks him if she can talk with Michelle for a while in order to help Qualneer with his search. Rodineer agrees. Qualneer refuses to jump off the balcony, so Rodineer lets Qualneer leave by the stairs. Qualneer meets up with Michelle and tells her the plan, she is to use the Magic Mirror to convince Rodineer to help find Alwel. The plan works, and Rodineer becomes enamoured with Michelle. Michelle engineers Rodineer into using a spell to find Alwel. He says he'll memorise it tomorrow. Michelle asks to borrow the spell book, and the charmed Rodineer agrees. The book is called "Book of Divinations by Alistair", on the cover is a giant eye. Qualneer escorts MIchelle back to his family home, and introduces her to his family. Qualneer's father disapproves of Qualneer seeing a Human. They all have dinner, then stay the night. Day 136 Qualneer and Michelle return to Rodineer. Rodineer learns the spell and casts the spell. Rodineer discovers that Alwel is is 500 Miles to the south. The distance the Southern Isles are away. Qualneer asks Michelle to stay behind to learn some spells. Qualneer needs to set his affairs in order in Solstace, then they can head to the Southern Isles to find to find Alwel. Experience *Experience: 2922.5 (+292.25 exp 10% prime requisite bonus) = 65,655 exp total **We're told the The Otyugh died from the poison out of character Category:Dicing with Death Episodes Category:Qualneer Episodes